


Truth in the Details

by lucdarling



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: 5+1 Things, M/M, Secret Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-18
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-11-02 04:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/364897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucdarling/pseuds/lucdarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times the people around them missed the obvious and one time it was clear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth in the Details

**I. Tony**  
Coulson disappeared for a few hours during his babysitting detail and Tony didn’t pay it any mind. He turned his music up and stared at the pile of his father’s things around him. What use was all this going to be, with his blood toxicity rising - the lithium dioxide could only do so much and the genius knew that.

“How’s it coming?” 

Tony didn’t jump at the bland voice that was all too familiar. “There’s some progress,” he hemmed.

“You don’t have a clue.” Coulson replied mildly. 

Tony grit his teeth. “I’d like to see you do better.”

“It’s not my division.” Coulson’s fingers twitched. “But I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You’re supposedly a genius.”

“You overdose on the caffeine there?” Tony nodded towards the agent’s hands. “You haven’t stopped fiddling with that thing on your finger.”

Coulson tucked his hands in his pockets. Tony stared at him and then caught sight of an old video reel behind the man. He waved a hand impatiently, moving forward to pull it out of the packing crate.

“Go bother someone else, I have to make some popcorn and watch what will undoubtedly be a fascinating look into my father’s ego.”

Coulson turned on a heel and left the workshop. Tony was surprised he’d listened to the demand and then his brain raced, trying to remember where he had stored the projector.

 

**II. Thor**  
“I did not expect to see you up so early!” Thor greeted Clint when he entered the kitchen.

“Keep your voice down, would you?” The marksman waved a hand in a downward motion Thor had learned meant to be quiet. “Some people are sleeping right down the hall.” Clint opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs. He set them on the counter, followed by a onion, ham left from last night’s meal and a bag of yellow cheese.

“Of course,” Thor responded. He turned around to pour himself a cup of the divine drink known as coffee and then leaned against the counter, watching quietly as Clint methodically cut the meat into tiny cubes and did the same to the onion. He was surprised to see Clint in the mansion so early, since more often than not he slept somewhere else.

The demigod was on his third cup of coffee with his Poptarts in the toaster when Clint carefully folded the egg concoction over itself into a half-circle and slid it onto a plate. He turned the stove off and made to walk off.

“You will not join me with your food?” Thor questioned.

Clint tossed a reply over his shoulder with a smile. “It’s not for me.”

“You are a good person, to bring breakfast to your lover.” Thor answered, considering how his Jane feels about Poptart crumbs in their shared bed. He thought he heard Clint mutter something about this person being more than a lover, but Thor dismissed it because the man has a reputation almost as large as that of Tony Stark.

 

**III. Bruce**  
Sounds travel down empty hallways, though Bruce didn’t think anyone realized this. He listened to the ongoing conversation absentmindedly, attention really focused on the slide of radiated cells under the microscope.

“I apologized for that! Would you like it written form too?”

“No, but next time perhaps you could follow directions?” was followed by a sigh.

“I’ll pick up some new ones on the way home, how about that?” The voice cajoled.

“Good. My schedule is full for today, won’t be home until late.”

“You need to stop thinking you need to make an appearance at every single meeting. The world won’t fall apart if you don’t attend one. Delegation isn’t a dirty word, you know.”

“You think you’re so funny.” Fond amusement was present in the voice and Bruce smiled to himself. It’s clearly an old argument and each player knows his part. “Try not to burn down the kitchen in my absence.”

“Sir, yessir!” A muffled laugh, Bruce imagined it’s hidden behind a calloused hand. “I’ll hold dinner for you, if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” The voices faded away as footsteps echoed on the tile and the scientist mused that he had missed that the Avenger’s liaison and archer were apparently living together. At least it explained Clint’s lack of presence at the mansion even though he had a room.

 

**IV. Steve**  
The battle ended quietly and dust floated in the air. Steve corralled the targets who were still upright and prodded them towards the SHIELD vehicles at one end of the street. He passed the half-open doors of the ambulance and stopped when he caught a flash of purple on the gurney.

“Is he going to be okay?” Steve directed the question at a uniformed medic.

Coulson answered as he climbed in the back. “He’ll be fine-”

“Because I don’t break promises!” Steve heard Clint’s interruption and could imagine the accompanying smirk. The words sounded well-rehearsed. The soldier wondered how often the agent and sniper had been in this position, that they were finishing each other’s sentences.

“You better not.” Coulson turned away and Steve walked on as the doors slammed shut. The ambulance rolled away, Steve putting the brief conversation out of his head.

 

**V. Darcy**  
Darcy looked up from her computer and whistles approvingly. “You clean up surprisingly well, anyone tell you that? Hot damn!” She took in the cut of Clint’s grey suit and the blond hair that wasn’t sticking up like a haystack, for once. “What’s the occasion?”

Clint answered with a noncommittal, “Got a thing to do.” He smiled, taking the sting out of Darcy being left out - she just knew it was some classified project that she’ll only hear about when she files the mission report and debrief summary - and Clint nods his head at Coulson’s closed office door. “Phil done in there?”

Darcy checked the schedule for her boss. “As far as I know. The only thing left on his calendar for today is an appointment at 8 with the letter A.” Clint’s smile widened and Darcy was suspicious.

“You know what it is, don’t you?” She stuck out her lower lip and pouted. No use in waiting for the report to cross her desk if she could tease out information earlier and Clint usually told her these sorts of things, security clearance be damned. “He wouldn’t say anything, but he had me pick up his suit from the dry cleaner’s.”

“The dark blue one?” At Darcy’s confirmation, the marksman looked pleased. He didn’t say anything else because Coulson stepped out of his office then, locking the door behind him. He’s dressed in the suit Darcy picked up and she waited for Clint to make a comment. Instead, the younger man looked stunned, staring at Coulson with wide eyes that have some unidentifiable emotion.

“You look good,” he said to Coulson and his voice is quiet, serious. Darcy watched silently as her boss’s lips quirked up in a smile she hasn’t seen before.

“Your approval is noted. Hungry?” The two men walked off in step and Darcy wondered if it’s a date instead of a mission like she first thought. She had no idea they were interested in each other.

 

**VI. Natasha**   
She tapped her foot impatiently. Debriefings weren’t the worst thing to handle as an agent, but Natasha ranked them up there. She recognized, though, that this ragtag team of superheroes could probably do with some guidance. They worked well enough as a group now, usually.

“You think your boyfriend could take a bit longer compiling the reports?” She said under her breath to the marksman on her right. “I have better things to do.”

“Husband, thank you very much.” Clint shot back. Natasha smirked because it was too easy to rile up her partner. Perhaps if she goaded him enough, he’d agree to spar later.

“Wait a minute, hold on. Did you just say _husband_?” Tony’s exclamation showed his shock. Natasha’s smirk grew wider as Clint glared at her. She shrugged as Tony continued, “You and - Please tell me you were drunk and it’s a tax thing.”

“No, Mr. Stark. It is not solely for taxes, though that is a beneficial side effect.” Phil strolled in the room and answered Tony’s plea in a bland tone. Natasha bit her lip to keep from laughing at Tony’s stutters. “It’ll be three years in May, actually.”

“Best three years of my life, isn’t that right, sweetheart?” Clint called out as Phil sat in a seat at the opposite end of the table. Phil’s look was unimpressed and Natasha dug her nails into her thigh so she wouldn’t snicker. She was pretty certain only she and Clint could read the distaste in the lines of Phil’s mouth.

“Ugh, stop it. You’re married, I get it. I might even believe it some day, just don’t call each other pet names.” Tony begged. Natasha leaned back in her chair and listened to Clint start an argument about the reality of marriage and how he was certainly entitled to call his husband whatever name he saw fit. 

Phil cut them both off as Tony moaned something about needing mental bleach. “If you’re done discussing my private life, I’d like to begin now.”


End file.
